what beshould do is start a war with spain or france. if we go that everyone will rally to the flag. the south will come in. everybody wants to be beat up on the europeans. he doesn't say it idly. he tells the ambassador from spain and france that it's a deal. the question is what does lincoln want to do. lincoln doesn't think the south is bluffing. he has a problem. the north is not unified behind a war effort. maybe only a third of northern want to fight a war to keep the south in union. about a third are happy about it. we get rid of them. they are fine. let's get rid of the south. we don't have to -- let them go. about a third don't care. we don't want them to leave we don't want to fight for it either. lincoln does something clever. some people want to spend armed expedition to reinforce sumter. some want to sneak these troops in to reinforce them. and they want to give it up. lincoln doesn't do any of them. lincoln announces publicly that he's going send an e petition it's only going to have food and no weapons or ammunition. just